Trade Me Completes Buyout of Homes.co.nz

Leading Kiwi classifieds operator Trade Me has today completed its acquisition of property vertical Homes.co.nz after clearing competition hurdles in the country.

Back in February local media reported that Kiwi classifieds giant Trade Me was looking to acquire real estate portal Homes.co.nz for an undisclosed sum and that the deal would have to run the gauntlet of competition scrutiny. Today, however, Trade Me CEO Anders Skoe took to Linkedin to announce that the deal has been completed and that Homes.co.nz is now part of Trade Me.

Founded in 2014 by current CEO Jamie Kruger Homes.co.nz started out as a data service company but over recent years has developed into a powerful alternative listing site to the two big players Realestate.co.nz and Trade Me’s real estate branch. The company employs some 24 people according to Linkedin and until recently was part-owned by telecoms company Spark which upped its stake in the firm in 2018.

The deal will strengthen the customer offering in a key vertical for Trade Me which operates a generalist classifieds business as well as several vertical offerings including real estate and jobs both of which it has specialist mobile apps for. With generalist goods businesses notoriously difficult to make profitable, the acquisition and its clearance by New Zealand's competition authorities is a real boost for Trade Me and consolidates a market with several strong players.